Protocol
Overview
Vane brings 풍차돌리기 ("spinning the windmill"), the Korean laddered-savings technique, on-chain: the savings ladder every Korean knows, run by smart contracts. You open a six-month stablecoin deposit each month, and once six are running, one matures every month. The aim is term-deposit interest without ever being more than a month away from the next maturity.
What Vane is#
Vane is a savings protocol built on GIWA Chain, an Ethereum layer 2 built with the OP Stack (see the GIWA documentation (opens in a new tab)). Its design rests on five properties:
- Laddered fixed-term deposits. Each deposit is a blade: a stablecoin principal locked for one term of six months. An address holds up to six blades at once, one in each slot of its wheel.
- Monthly access to cash. Blades are opened one month apart, so they also mature one month apart. With a full wheel, the next maturity is never more than one month away.
- Non-custodial. Each blade is owned by the address that deposited it. No company or operator holds funds on a depositor's behalf. The final permission model of the contracts, including any admin or upgrade keys, is documented with the deployment.
- No KYC. The protocol does not ask for identity information. Users remain responsible for complying with the laws of their own jurisdiction.
- Stablecoin deposits. Blades are denominated in USD stablecoins. The supported list and the minimum blade size are announced at launch.
What Vane is not#
- Not a bank deposit. A blade is not covered by any deposit protection or insurance scheme.
- Not a fixed-rate product. Interest comes from a yield source, is variable, and can be zero. No rate is promised.
- Not live. The contracts are not deployed and deposits are not open. Deposits are planned to open at GIWA mainnet launch; GIWA mainnet is not live yet.
- Not affiliated with GIWA or Upbit. Vane is an independent project built on GIWA Chain. It has no partnership with, and no endorsement from, GIWA or Upbit.
How a wheel of six blades works#
The term is six protocol months, and a wheel has six slots, one per month of the term. You open one blade per month: slot 1 in month 1, slot 2 in month 2, and so on until slot 6 in month 6. At that point the wheel is full.
In month 7 the blade in slot 1 reaches maturity. Its owner can withdraw the matured amount to their wallet, or roll it into a new six-month blade in the same slot, optionally adding new funds. In month 8 the blade in slot 2 matures, and so on. From month 7 onwards, one blade matures every month for as long as the owner keeps rolling.
Interest accrues over each blade's term and is paid at maturity, net of the protocol fee. Before maturity it is tracked but not withdrawable. The full mechanics are in Blades, wheels and maturity and Rolling and withdrawing.
Monthly access to cash compared with a single deposit#
Consider an amount of 6 × D, where D is the size of one blade. It can be locked in a single six-month deposit, or spread across a wheel of six blades of D each.
| Single six-month deposit of 6 × D | Full wheel of six blades of D | |
|---|---|---|
| Next access to cash without breaking | Up to six months away | Never more than one month away |
| What matures | 6 × D plus interest, once per term | D plus interest, every month |
| Interest at stake in an early break | All interest accrued on 6 × D | Interest accrued on one blade of D |
| Capital earning interest in the first six months | 6 × D from the first day | Builds up from D to 6 × D |
The last row is the trade-off. While the wheel is filling, less capital is deposited, so less interest accrues early on. Once the wheel is full, both approaches hold the same capital, but the wheel keeps one maturity every month.
If you need cash before a maturity#
With a full wheel, the first option is to wait: the next maturity is at most a month away. If that is too long, the owner can break any locked blade at any time. A break returns the blade's full principal and forfeits the interest it has accrued, together with any redistribution allocations it holds. The forfeited amount is shared among every other blade locked in the protocol at that moment and paid to them at their maturity.
Breaking one blade never affects the owner's other blades, so the cost of an early exit is limited to one blade's interest rather than the interest on the whole amount.
Interest, fees and the $VANE token#
Blades share the yield that the yield source generates on deposits, pro rata to principal and time locked. The venue is announced before launch. A protocol fee is taken on interest only, never on principal; its level is announced at launch, and its proceeds fund buy-and-burn of $VANE.
$VANE is the planned protocol token, with three planned uses: a boost to a depositor's weight in the redistribution of forfeited interest, value capture through fee-funded buy-and-burn, and governance of protocol parameters. The token is not live and has no contract address.
Trying the design before launch#
The simulator models a wheel, rolling, withdrawing and early breaks with illustrative inputs. It shows what a break forfeits; your share of other depositors' forfeits depends on total deposits, so it is not estimated. Its outputs are hypothetical: nothing is deployed and no funds move.
Where to read next#
- The 풍차돌리기 ladder: where the technique comes from and how Vane maps it on-chain.
- Blades, wheels and maturity: the objects of the protocol and the maturity schedule.
- Early break and redistribution: what a break costs, with a worked example.
- Security and risks: the risks to understand before depositing.